Joyce Millman began her career as a pop music critic for the Boston Phoenix. She joined the San Francisco Examiner in 1987 as its television critic, and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 and 1991 for her Examiner columns.

In 1995, she left the Examiner to become a founding staff member of Salon.com. While at Salon, she wrote television and pop music criticism, as well as parenting essays as part of the editorial team of the Salon sub-site, Mothers Who Think.